Question

    From the cold Arctic to the African plains, every society seems to have some form of music as part of their culture. Music is so common and widespread that most people don’t even question it anymore. But until recently, there were researchers who doubted it: How could we know that music was really a part of all known societies?

Now, Harvard researchers, Samuer Mehr and Manvir Singh, have found further evidence to support the argument. They gathered music from different countries, media and time periods, and collected descriptions of many different pieces of music. Rather than focusing on music first and then looking at where it could be found, they started by studying a record of detailed descriptions of more than three hundred known global societies, and found that all of them have music as part of their culture.

To see if people could recognize the functions of songs from around the world, the researchers also created a listening experiment in which people tried to guess the behavioral context of a song. This went surprisingly well. Particularly music that was intended for dancing or to calm a baby were easy to recognize as either dance music or lullabies. Love songs were a bit more difficult to qualify, because they tend to be very diverse even within cultures.

This systematic study of connections sounds like the way that researchers in other fields would study biological patterns. “There’s a field known as cultural phylogenetics,” says Singh. Whereas biological characteristics are only received from parent to child, cultural characteristics (like music) are also shared between people of the same generation. That makes it much more difficult to figure out where the characteristic has come from.

“Finally,” Singh says, “We still don’t know why music developed gradually. Our study shows that humans everywhere share cognitive mechanisms (认知机制) that make certain sounds seem appropriate in particular contexts.”

1.What does the underlined word “it” in paragraph 1 refer to?

A.The fact that music is part of every culture.

B.The question whether music is widely spread.

C.The doubt whether further research has been done.

D.The idea that Africa and the Arctic have cool music.

2.What did Mehr and Singh do first?

A.They found out further evidence. B.They studied various societies.

C.They sought the origins of music. D.They focused mainly on music.

3.What’s the purpose of the listening experiment?

A.To comfort a baby. B.To pick out love songs.

C.To create a context. D.To tell functions of songs.

4.What is the main idea of the text?

A.Music shapes societies in different cultures.

B.Global music shares common characteristics.

C.Musical systems display cultural differences.

D.Multi-culture is based on biological patterns.

Answer

1.A

2.B

3.D

4.B

【解析】

本文为议论文，介绍世界音乐的共同特征，研究人员通过研究发现在全球三百多个社会中都发现音乐作为了他们文化的一部分。从生物遗传特征来讲还是无法弄清楚对音乐认知的特征来自于哪里，但人类共有的认知机制能够在特定的环境（如人类社会各种活动）中赋予音乐生命力，所以，世界各地的音乐还是拥有共同的特点，同时成为各种文化不可或缺的组成部分。

1.词义猜测题。根据第一段第一句“From the cold Arctic to the African plains, every society seems to have some form of music as part of their culture.”可知，每个社会群体似乎都把某种音乐形式当作自己文化的一个部分，由此推断代词it指代音乐是每种文化的一部分这一事实。故选A。

2.细节理解题。根据第二段第三句“Rather than focusing on music first and then looking at where it could be found, they started by studying a record of detailed descriptions of more than three hundred known global societies,”可知，Mehr和Singh首先做的事情是研究全球三百多个已知社会群体详细描述的记录。故选B。

3.细节理解题。根据第三段首句“To see if people could recognize the functions of songs from around the world, the researchers also created a listening experiment in which…”可知，听乐辨析实验的目的是看人们能否对世界各地的音乐功能加以辨别。故选D。

4.主旨大意题。第一段，有研究者质疑音乐是所有已知社会的一部分。第二段，来自哈佛的研究者们通过实验证实了所有被调查的社会群体都把音乐当作自己文化的一部分。第三段，为了弄清人们是否能够辨别世界各地音乐的功能，研究者们实施了听乐辨析的实验，结果舞曲和摇篮曲容易辨认，爱情乐曲稍难辨认。第四段，生物特性只从父母传给孩子，而同一代人之间也有共同的文化特征（如音乐）。这就使得我们很难弄清楚这种文化特征来自何处。第五段，我们仍然不知道为什么音乐得以逐渐发展。但我们的研究表明，世界各地的人类都有共同的认知机制，这种认知机制使某些声音在特定的环境中显得很合适。综上内容和表述可知，实验中，虽然爱情乐曲稍难辨认，很难弄清楚同一代人之间共有的文化特征（如音乐）来自何处，也不知道为什么音乐得以逐渐发展，但人类共有的认知机制能够在特定的环境（如人类社会各种活动）中赋予音乐生命力，所以，世界各地的音乐自然拥有共同的特点，即能够长期依附于各种社会群体的各种活动、同时成为各种文化不可或缺的组成部分。答案B具有很好的概括性和针对性。故选B。